Early in the year 1697 Sir George Rooke was appointed admiral and commander-in-chief of the fleet, and put to sea towards the latter end of June. As the French avoided fighting Sir George found it impossible to do anything with them; but while cruising off the French coast he met with a large fleet of Swedish merchantmen, and having obliged them to bring to and submit to be searched, found just grounds for believing that most of their cargoes belonged to French merchants: upon which he sent them under the convoy of some frigates into Plymouth. This caused a great deal of excitement, the Swedish minister interposing, and some of our statesmen being inclined to disapprove the admiral's conduct. Upon this Sir George insisted that the matter should be brought to trial before the court of admiralty, where, upon the clearest evidence, it was shown that these Swedish ships were freighted by French merchants, partly with French goods, but chiefly with Indian merchandise, which had been taken out of English and Dutch ships; and that the Swedes had no further concern therein than receiving two per cent. for lending their names, procuring passes, and taking other necessary precautions for screening the effects of the French merchants; so that the whole of this rich fleet was adjudged to be good prize, and the clamour that had been raised against Sir George Rooke was converted into general applause! The following year he was elected member of parliament for Portsmouth, where, voting mostly with the Tories, the Whigs tried to ruin him in the king's favour; but, to the honour of King William be it said, that when pressed to remove Sir George Rooke from his seat at the Admiralty-board, he answered plainly "Sir George Rooke has served me faithfully at sea, and I will never displace him for acting as he thinks most for the service of his country in the House of Commons." Upon the accession of Queen Anne, in 1702, Sir George was constituted vice-admiral and lieutenant of the Admiralty of England, as also lieutenant of the fleets and seas of this kingdom; and, upon the declaration of war with France, it was resolved that Sir George Rooke should command the grand fleet sent against Cadiz, the Duke of Ormond having the command-in-chief of the land forces. When it was found impracticable for the land forces to make themselves masters of Cadiz, Sir George Rooke proposed bombarding it, but this suggestion meeting with opposition the admiral decided to return home. On September 19th, 1702, the fleet sailed homeward bound, but on October 6th the admiral received information from Captain Hardy that a number of galleons under the escort of a strong French squadron had entered the harbour of Vigo; upon which Sir George called a council of war composed of English and Dutch flag-officers, by whom it was resolved to sail to Vigo as expeditiously as possible, and attack the enemy.